Tuesday 25 August 2015

Trentham Gardens, Day 1, Wk 6

It's the last full week of the summer holiday's, sob sob. M is still off work so we decided to get away and headed up north stopping for lunch with Great Nana enroute.

On Sunday we visited Trentham Gardens as we are staying in a hotel close by.

The kids and I did the barefoot walk which was an interesting challenge. At one point we had to walk through mud which came up to lj's knee's...it was totally disgusting! A lovely part was walking through a clear water stream. Mj raced ahead while I tip toed my way around the course. But what a feeling to get to the end, wash our feet and put our sandals back on...bliss.

Together we searched out the  fairies as we walked around the 2mile lake.


M was delighted to see a garden designed by his favourite landscape designer, Piet Ouldorf.

Friday 21 August 2015

National Gallery, Day 4, Wk 5


On our trip to The National gallery we happened upon a kids activity in full swing. It was considering the frames on a number of paintings. Some highly decorative with flowers and leaves, some with writing on them such as the self portrait of Van Eyck, some architectural with classical columns and some simple and painted a plain colour. These free kids activities always suit us as a family so well. It gives M a chance to go off and spend time seeing what he had hoped to see and I work well at the kids learning level! The staff are always lovely too and makes me desire to have their job!


I'm not quite sure that Lj got the 'decorate the frame' part and instead re drew her mouse which she learnt to draw the other morning and together we created an orangutang seen from our trip to Monkey World last week. MJ's frame featured lots of things to do with boats!

We had a lovely day out in London and it made me so glad to have a husband who enjoys doing similar things to me!

Thursday 20 August 2015

Making, Day2, Wk 5

 Tired from our long and busy day at The Dockyard the day before and it raining outside...we did some making.


I made up a kids nurse costume for a bespoke order.


MJ painted his clock in camoflague.


Lj created some puppets and we learnt how to draw mice!

Dock Yard, Day1, Wk 5

 On Sunday we discovered The Dockyard, Chatham. Chatham Historic Dockyard is a maritime museum on part of the site of the former royal/naval dockyard at Chatham in Kent. Having a boat loving boy we are really surprised that we have not come across it before.




There are a whole variety of things for adults and kids to engage in. We did a tour of a submarine, a tour of the ropery, took part in the kids science activities and explored the various exhibitions.


I was inspired by the history of the place and the amazing architecture in the industrial buildings.

We spent a long day exploring and by the time we were ready to come home, our picnic devoured hours earlier we were famished, so what a treat it was to realise that Pizza hut, Nandos etc were only 2 mins (literally) drive away.

As a side note...initially we were quite surprised by the entry price of almost £50 for a family of four, however realising that this gave us entry for 1 yr and with so much to do we were much happier. Imagine our annoyance when we realised (3 days later) that our Art fund membership would have gotten us in free and then our joy when I contacted the dock yard to explain and was fully reimbursed!

Monday 17 August 2015

Glamping in Dorset Week 4


Our Yurt on Farrs Meadow, Wimborne Minster

 Inside our yurt.



 Clivendon


 Corfe Castle



Monkey World


Lulworth Cove


 Lunch on a steam train


Montisfort


Studland beach


Swanage


Wimborne Minister

Tuesday 4 August 2015

Summer Holidays 2015 Week 2







After a busy weekend celebrating M's cousins wedding in Bromsgrove and catching up with the kids great grandparents we had a week of SLOW. With Mum friends and their two kids each we set up camp at National Trusts Houghton Mill, Cambridgeshire. The children spent hours each day climbing and sitting in a huge tree perfectly positioned behind our triangular arrangement of tents. On two afternoons we enjoyed the kids activities in Houghton Mill at the entrance to the camp site. In the village there was a nice play park, local pub which did takeaway chips and an inspiring little art gallery, where I discovered artists Catherine Green and Helen Hallows.